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Business Digest
Financial network to end after nine years

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CNN also said yesterday that it's planning changes for its Headline News offshoot, offering prime-time programming instead of a constantly repeating 30-minute newscast.

CNNfn is available in only about 30 million of the nation's 110 million television homes. With the coming expiration of its deal with the DirecTV satellite system, it faced the prospect of losing nearly half of its distribution. DirecTV's corporate owner, News Corp., has also been considering starting a financial-news network of its own.

$500 million Marsh & McLennan figure to settle is disputed

NEW YORK — The price for settling state charges of collusion and bid rigging by the nation's largest insurance broker could be "far higher" than $500 million, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said yesterday.

Spitzer disputed the $500 million settlement figure reported yesterday by The Wall Street Journal as the minimum for any settlement of the attorney general's lawsuit against Marsh & McLennan. Since Spitzer announced the suit Oct. 14, the company's chief executive resigned and outside directors have scrambled to settle the case as its stock plummets.

A Marsh spokesman didn't respond to a request for comment yesterday.

High oil, gas prices prove to be a boon for Exxon Mobil

Exxon Mobil, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, reported a record third-quarter profit and may be headed for all-time marks for annual revenue and earnings, thanks to higher prices for oil and natural gas.

The company said it earned $5.68 billion, or 88 cents per share, in the third quarter, compared with $3.65 billion, or 55 cents per share, a year earlier.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call had forecast 87 cents per share.
 
Revenue jumped to $76.38 billion from $58.84 billion.

It was, however, not a good day for oil stocks, as crude-oil futures prices fell below $51 a barrel to their lowest close in three weeks. Shares of Exxon Mobil, one of the 30 Dow industrials, yesterday fell 34 cents, to $48.61.

Automaker Chrysler poised to make turnaround

The chief of DaimlerChrysler's Chrysler Group says the once-struggling U.S.-based operation is poised to increase its share of the ultracompetitive U.S. auto market this year, but profits remain the priority.

Chrysler yesterday reported an operating profit of $269 million from its automotive business in the third quarter, up from $171 million a year ago. It marked the fifth consecutive quarterly profit for the division that lost $1 billion in the second quarter a year ago.

For the first nine months of 2004, Chrysler was the only one of Detroit's Big Three automakers to grow its U.S. market share — 13 percent versus 12.8 percent a year ago. Its third-quarter results helped parent DaimlerChrysler record a profit of $1.18 billion.

DaimlerChrysler's U.S. shares rose 4 cents yesterday to close at $41.83.

Compiled from The Associated Press